Tag Archives: science facts

Today I found out it is possible for your muscles and other connective soft tissues to turn to bone. The condition is known as Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva (FOP) or “Stone Man Syndrome”. It affects an estimated 1 out of every 2 million people beginning when they are children, and to date there is no cure. The telltale sign of someone […]

Abi asks: What causes dew to form on grass and why does dew only form in the mornings? Actually, dew can form at any time; it just needs the right weather/temperature patterns to make it happen. However, nighttime is usually the primary period when the factors that cause dew to form are just right. Although, as an example of when […]

Myth: The instant you’re exposed to the near vacuum of space, you’ll lose consciousness, your blood will start to boil, and you’ll explode. (Other variations on this myth include you freezing near instantly from the extreme “cold” of space.) In fact, so long as you don’t try to hold your breath, which would result in your lungs rupturing and thus […]

Today I found out why iodine is added to salt. Iodine first began being added to salt commercially in the United States in 1924 by the Morton Salt Company at the request of the government. This was done as a response to the fact that there were certain regions in the U.S., such as around the Great Lakes and in […]

Sirius-A is the brightest extrasolar star visible to the naked eye from Earth, being almost twice as bright as the second brightest, Canopus. Sirius-A and Sirius-B combine to form a binary system and appear as one star to the naked eye, though the vast majority of luminosity to the naked eye comes from Sirius-A, Sirius-B being a white dwarf which […]

Today I found out why black lights make things glow. Black lights are not that different from any other type of light, whether incandescent, fluorescent, or just the age old candle flame. The difference is that black lights emit most of their light waves just outside the range humans can perceive, in the Ultraviolet (UV) part of the spectrum. When […]

Each second about four million metric tons of matter is converted to energy within the Sun’s core. This gives the Sun a lifetime as a main sequence star of about 10 billion years with about 5 billion years to go. The surface temperature of the Sun is about 5780 K, which is equivalent to just under 10,000 F and 5,500 […]

Myth: Reading in a dimly lit area will damage your eyesight. In fact, the only “damage” reading in a dimly lit setting will do, in comparison to reading in an ample lighted setting, is to cause extra eyestrain, which will go away simply by resting your eyes. This shouldn’t be too much of a surprise given the fact that for […]

Redheads are harder to sedate than any other group. Using most common anesthetics, they require on average about 20% more anesthesia. They also have a higher tolerance for pain than ‘normal’ people. This is because the Melancortin 1 Receptor mutation that gives them red hair also triggers the excess release of Pheomelanin, which among other things stimulates a brain receptor […]

Once regarded by astronomers as a small and relatively insignificant star, the Sun is now known to be brighter than about 85% of the stars in the Milky Way. Contrary to popular belief, it is also white, not yellow, despite being classified as a “yellow” dwarf. Reference

You should know Super Glue adheres more strongly if you add a little water before applying it. Super Glue adheres nearly instantly when it comes in contact with the hydroxyl ions in water. When this happens, the molecules form chains that make a very strong and durable plastic mesh that eventually hardens. Thanks to the fact that an amazing amount […]

Today I found out how things become petrified, rather than just decaying normally. Petrifaction (also known as petrification) is a type of fossilization which leaves living organisms preserved as a type of stone. In order for this to happen, a specific set of circumstances has to be present when the organisms cease to live. When any living thing dies and […]

Today I found out why beans give you gas. Beans contain a sugar molecule called ‘Oligosaccharides’. These types of sugars cannot be digested by the stomach or small intestine. They get passed on to the large intestine where numerous types of bacteria begin to break them down. During the process, the bacteria release several different types of gases, mainly hydrogen, […]

Jack B. asks: Why does a person’s hair only grow a certain length and then stop, but then when you cut it, it will grow back to its maximum length? I very briefly mentioned this in an article about two years ago that you might also be interested in (There is No Difference Between Fur and Hair), but I’ll go […]

Myth: Helicopters will drop like a rock when the engine shuts down. In fact, you have a better chance at surviving in a helicopter when the engine fails than you do in an airplane. Helicopters are designed specifically to allow pilots to have a reasonable chance of landing them safely in the case where the engine stops working during flight, […]

Amazingly, if we were actually able to convert matter perfectly to energy with 1 kg of matter being completely annihilated, the energy produced from just that small amount of matter is about 42.95 mega tons of TNT. So an adult male weighing in at around 200 pounds has somewhere in the vicinity of 4000 megatons of TNT potential in their […]

Today I found out how a smoke alarm works. At their core, smoke alarms are very simple devices that need only two functions: a way of detecting smoke and a way of alerting people to the problem. From new technology involving lasers to old world technology that relies on a lonely individual sitting in a tower on the side of […]